[wplug] setting up an old laptop

[Drew from Zhrodague]

> I just got my hands on a old IBM thinkpad 701c it's a 486 w/ 16mb of ram, I 
> was wondering what would be the best way to get Linux onto it and how to 
> connect it to my home network or another Linux box as a terminal. as far as 
> I can tell it doesn't have a serial port, it dose have IR and parallel 
> thought the parallel port is also the floppy connector form the looks of 
> it. it dose have a Cirrus Logic PCIC compatible PCMCIA controller too 
> (according to windows 
> 95)  http://mdxi.collapsar.net/butterfly/tp701-specsheet.png  according to 
> this sheet it its 2 type 1 2 type 2 or 1 type 3 capable for PCMCIA if 
> anyone has a spare NIC i could get :) but I'd like recomendations on how to 
> get linuc onto this system and how to connect it to my home network

	I have a bunch of old laptops, and I find the absolutely easiest 
way to do this is with a wireless card, bootfloppies, and an NFS share of 
whatever your favorite distro is.

	With installing RedHat, for instance, the floppies already contain 
the drivers for both orinoco, and for the prism2-based wireless cards. 
This makes installation a snap, and it's much faster than using PLIP, 
parallel CDROMs, IR, or other methods.

	Like most Laptop owners, I have a box full of 3Com PCMCIA ethernet 
cards, but not a single functioning dongle.

	This does, of course, require that you have a wireless 
access-point -- a good reason to pick one up is to resurrect an old 
laptop. Access-points can be purchased for $29 from Internet and local 
vendors (CompUSA, for instance). Cards are just so damn cheap these days.

-- 

Drew from Zhrodague		http://www.WiFiMaps.com
drew at zhrodague.net		Location Based WiFi